Just chillin' and attack of mammoth moth

We are still enjoying our break from the heat!!  I cannot make myself stay inside --it is just too gorgeous outside.  We are becoming re-acquainted with our neighbors as everyone has been coccooned inside with the AC for months now.

Honey broke out the ladder and I climbed up and painted the trim around the upper windows.  No before pics - sorry.  I did not want any extra time on that elevation!! 

As I have mentioned our house was built in the 1980's and has every icky 80's design element you can imagine - including tons of 80's brassy brass which I have been on a mission to remove.  Even the front porch was blessed with brassy brass


Brassy brass house numbers



While I was shaking like a leaf working on the ladder I removed the house numbers.  The picture above was taken after I removed them.  That nastiness is my painting board - not my house.  (Just to clarify).  I had a few sample sizes of Behr with primer left from other projects and decided I had a good enough color for the porch.  So I scrubbed the brassy brass numbers with deglosser to hopefully help the paint stick and slapped 2 coats of paint on.  Then I sprayed them with clear flat spray paint.  I love that stuff!!  It seemed to work - I tried scratching them with my fingernails and the paint stuck.  Awesome!!

So then it was back on the ladder to rehang them.

This picture also shows how nice and crisp the trim is on the upper windows.  You will just have to take my word for it - there was caulk everywhere!!  I think they actually just stood in the yard and threw handfulls of caulk in the vicinity of the upper windows!!  But it is fixed now and I feel like our porch is so much more welcoming now!!

I even put a nail back in the door that I refinished - I really had to talk myself into that one!  Now my fall wreath is finally in place.  Of course - it may look silly next week when temperatures are supposed to be in the mid 90's.  But it will remind me that fall will arrive  -- hopefully.

I almost forgot the BEST part of the porch adventure today.  Since I did not want to climb any higher on the ladder than I had to, I could not actually see the top of the trim.  Evidentally a Ginormous ridiculously huge moth had made a nice little home up there.  And evidentally when I was painting his home - I painted him, too.  And painted him ALOT.  And evidentally I painted over his eyes because the wet paint coated moth flew into everything.  And I mean ev-er-y-thing.  So I spent an hour or so scrubbing moth shaped paint splats off the brick, the chair, the window - well you get the idea.  I did manage to maintain my deathgrip on the ladder and did not fall off while being buzzed by angry paint covered moth.  But on that note - I did have to scrub a paint brush shaped paint splat off the side walk.  Moths are not on my happy list right now.

Happy DIY'ing

Susan

The dome is broken!!!!!

The heat dome that has been trapped over us for the entire summer has finally been broken!!  Sautrday was once again over 100 degrees.  Miserable!!  But Sunday (and they are saying for the next 14 days) was in the 80's.  Wooo Hooo!!!


So instead of being inside working on my stairs like I probably should have been - I found as many projects as possible to do outside.

I cleaned the craptastic shelves off on one side of the garage.  No pics as that would be really boring.  But it has really been bothering me and I am soooo glad to get it done!  I have several bags for charity and the trash can was full. 

Then it was on to the front porch.  Well at least part of it.  You may remember me saying that we had new windows installed last Thanksgiving.  It was probably the best thing we have bone for this house.  Even with the record breaking summer - our electricity bills have been the lower this year than the past 3 or 4 years.  However, the window installers were horrible caulkers.  You may remember here where I whined told about repainting inside the windows where they had done the over caulking job of the century.  Well the outside was not spared this embarrassment either.  But right after we had them done it turned cold - way too cold for me to paint outside.  Then after the 12 days of spring this year it was too hot.  Now it is just right - says Goldilocks

Here are the before of the house that caulk built

This is not a true before because I had been outside for an hour scraping caulk off the actual window frame.

And bless their little hearts - they actually used paintable caulk outside!!  So after scrubbing and then a coat of paint...

Soo much better!!!!  The pictures really don't do it justice.  It is so much crisper.  I still have three little windows above these to do.  But those require the ladder so Honey has to get that out for me.  And fortunatley the rest of the downstairs windows are surrounded by brick and they did a great job caulking those.  Notice I said downstairs windows.  Yep - there are 4 windows upstairs that are not surrounded by brick.   That.will.be.fun. 

But for now....  Happy DIY'ing!!

Susan





Favorite Things in My Town - Linky Party

For those of you who follow Centsational Girl you know that she is hosting this awesome linky party


And if you are not following her you are missing a great blog!!

I have really enjoyed reading all the posts about all the wonderful places her followers live.  Sort of like a mini-vacay on your computer.

So I thought I would brag about my town a bit.  I will start off by saying we are transplants.  I am a Mississippi girl born and bred.  My Honey was in the Navy so in 9 short years we lived in  San Diego, California;  Orlando, Florida;  North Chicago, Illinois:  Virginia Beach, Virginia; and finally here to Oklahoma.  We liked it here so much that we decided for our family it was best for him to leave the Navy and make it our permanent home.  Never will it be a decision we regret.

Now onto the introductions

For a small town we have GREAT shopping

Great boutiques and clothes on Campus Corner - not too mention lots of great food in this area



In old town Norman there are lots of vintage shops, antique stores, and more boutique type stores.  And even more great food. 

We even have a little mall - and our mall now has ....drum roll please - JoAnn's!!

There is always something to do

Great concerts - like U2

Lots of city sponsored festivals like Norman Musical Festival where downtown is shut down for a week-end and dozens upon dozens of bands play in different venues.



Live theater

Great museums

And with our favorite season starting this Saturday - woo hoo!!!!  One of the best things about living in Norman

Love us some OU football!!!

But seriously - the University gives the entire town a sense of unity - everyone has pride in OUR university.  And it is a beautiful campus

But the best part of living in Norman is the people.  You can truly find someone you "click" with here.  Probably due to the fact that being a university town such a wide variety of people live here. 

Seriously - come on down for a visit - the SOONER the better

(You knew I had to do it!!)

Now go to Centsational Girl and link up your town.

PS - all the photos that are not mine came from the city of Norman website

Happy DIY'ing

Susan

My Gallery Wall

Well first of all it is very hard to take a picture of the side of a stairwell.!!  The spindles from the stairs really get in the way.  But I will give it my best effort.

I love crosses.  I love that they represent the grace and forgiveness that encompass me.  My friends and family know that I love crosses so I am blessed with many as gifts.  I have them spread through out the house but decided the stairwell wall would be a good place to showcase some of them.  I am very pleased with the results - just not with my pictures.

I know this is not the conventional gallery wall where the items "match" so well - but these "match" in their own way.  This wall is what you see when you walk in from the garage door and to me is such a welcome home.  I especially love that I have not purchased any of these.  Every cross on this wall was a gift from someone close to me.  So not only do they represent His love for me, they represent that I am truly loved here.

Some of my favorites



All 3 of these my youngest daughter has brought back from her trips to New Mexico.  They are so vibrant and colorful and really help this area to pop.  They really remond me of her with all their color and uniqueness.

My oldest daughter and her hubby brought this back to me from their honeymoon in Progresso.  It is hand carved and makes such a statement.  I felt so special that they thought of me on their honeymoon.

My friend Susan had this made for me.  (Not only does she have a great name - she is a great friend)  She just surprised me one day with it - so sweet.

My brother and his wife brought this back from Ireland when they were there tracing her roots.





This one started this wall.  My Honey was working out of town and found this in a local gift shop there.  He thought of me and brought it home.  I just love that!! 

I could go on and on as each cross has a story, but you get the general idea. 

I thought about "framing" some of the crosses, but was not sure about the look.  What do you think?

Happy DIY'ing!!

Susan

Linking up

Happy Fall Ya'll!!

Well ok - not really.  I had this idea that even though it is still over 100 degrees that if I worked on a fall craft it would make me feel cooler.  Guess what - I still feel like it is over 100 degrees!!  But at least I have a cute little wreath.

I actually went shopping Thursday - pick yourself up, I really did.  I decided after seeing so many incredibly cute porches on blogland that I will decorate mine for fall this year.  And more than one carved pumpkin!  So off I go on my merry way.  And guess what - even though every store that I went to had tons of Christmas on the aisles, all of them said that they had not put out much of their fall yet.  Really??!!??  I - the non-shopper  - make the effort to actually spend the time shopping and I can't.  I was able to pick up enough items at the dollar tree to make a wreath.

So here is what I did while paint was drying - literally - on the stairs

It is an 18 inch wreath form from the Dollar Tree and all the picks except the sunflowers came from Dollar tree, too.  The feathers are left overs.  I disected all the picks and glued them in.  So easy - and only cost about $11 for the wreath.  Woo hoo - I guess score one for ht enon-shopper

Now - if we could just get some cooler weather so I can put this on my door!!

Happy DIY'ing!!

Susan

http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/2011/09/diy-fall-festival.htmloff.blogspot.com/2011/09/diy-fall-festival.html

Oh what a week!!!!

So perhaps I jumped into the DIY and blogging wagon a little too fast.  Obviously from my lack of posts I have been a bit behind - or perhaps overwhelmed.  Who knows.  But today was the first day since before the luau that I have had a chance to work on my stairs.  And you know what...

I have really, really missed working on them.  I have discovered that DIY is a great creative outlet.  And I have always known that I need a creative outlet.  So the past two weeks with all their flurries of activities have left me lacking.  Today felt great!!  I did not have an incredible amount of time, but I was able to

-stain and start varathaning the upper level hand rail
-caulk and touch up the paint and stain on the lower stairs
-caulk the trim and baserail on teh upper level

woo hoo!!!!!

Falling back to my crafty roots this is how I touch up paint and paint the caulk

My honey thinks it is insane, but using my little brushes makes me feel like I have better control.  Especially in the tight little spaces like under the treads.  But it takes a while...  ok - a long while.

Now I have a dilema----




The trim above the frog tape is my dilema





This one shows the distance from the lower stairs to the trim I want to paint rather well

 These pictures show the upper level handrail at the top of the pictures.  I want to paint the trim underneath the handrail in the off white that I have used on the beadboard and spindles.  Uhmm...  It is really, really hard to get to.  I have put some of the adhesion primer on by leaning over the handrail, sitting on the second floor landing and leaning through the spindles, and stretching up from the lower stairs.  I have not come close to "cutting" in to the handrail.  I am terrified of destroying the stairs by putting a ladder on them.

Soooooo... any suggestions?


But on to other things...

Both girls start their new schools tomorrow.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news to all of you with young children who think that you will have more time when your kids are older, but this was the busiest back to school week I have ever had!!  Oh my goodness!!  Both girls had mandatory orientations that they were supposed to bring a "support person" to.  Long...very long...orientations.  Then both girls needed books.. lots of books



oldest daughter's books



Youngest daughter's books

Yep - that is alot of books.  And we actually have 2 each of youngest daughter's books.  We bought all that she needed at the college book store - $585 worth.  Then someone told us about Textbook Brokers.  So we went there and the prices were so much better that we bought them all again.  $403.  Nice savings!!!  Now we just have to return all the ones to the college book store.

And since they have so many books, plus their laptops, etc.  We had to go shopping for new backpacks - the industrial type.  Oldest daughter had to get a rolling back pack AND a regular back pack.  Poor kid!!  Youngest daughter found one made for actual back packing that has lumbar support and crosses over her chest.  Once she gets it on - she seems to be ok.  Heaven help us if she falls over backwards, it will take a football team to get her back up right.  She chose to have all of her classes back to back with no real break to make her day shorter, so she has to carry everything with her all day.

Then there was school supply shopping.  And back to school clothes shopping for youngest daughter.  Oldest daughter will go in 2 weeks "clothes" shopping once she gets her assigned scrubs.

Uhm....  maybe one day they will outgrow back to school shopping, but I am not holding my breath!!!

We had a big cook out for the kids on Thursday.  And to add to the chaos
son-in-law had to have surgery on Friday.  He did not do well with the anesthesia at all.  Poor guy was at the hospital ALOT longer than they had said he would be.  He had to have more work done than the doc had anticipated, too.  So he has been in alot of pain.  We tried to help out as much as we could Friday and Saturday.  (Other than the pain - he is fine now~his body is functioning normally now)

I also spent an evening with youngest daughter finding all the back roads/traffic avoiders for her college commute.

So - those of you with young children - do not get your hopes up about all the extra time you will have.  But do enjoy it ~ they are very, very enjoyable - ok, most of the time - at this age.

Ohhh - I finally relented and went birthday shopping with my buddy.  One of the things she bought was

SCORE!!!   I loooovve it!!  It will eventually go in my bedroom which I plan to redo.  Sometime if  after I finish the stairs.

With that...

Best wishes on back to school

And Happy DIY'ing

Susan